I always wondered how the advisors in SimCity actually decided on their advice. You could never make them happy. They'd complain about the lack of a fire station, for example, and so you'd build a fire station. But then they'd be on your back about how the fire station doesn't cover the town's whole fire radius. And then it would be wages for the firefighters. And then a second fire station. Such is the eternal, municipal nightmare of city-building games. But Memoriapolis, freshly arrived from early access into its full 1.0 form, lets you take a direct, if morally dubious, role in politics. If you like Manor Lords and Cities Skylines 2, but also long for the gleaming marble of Ancient Rome, this is well worth a try.
It begins as you might expect. A town center. Some farms. A quarry. But after the opening 30 minutes or so, Memoriapolis tips its hand, and becomes a different kind of city-building game. More than buildings and resources, Memoriapolis is focused on managing people, ideologies, and democracy - the mechanics around industry and the economy are still robust enough, but come secondary to the political wranglings.
Once you've built the Senate, it will be populated by different factions, all of whom have their own (often selfish) interests. Your citizens meanwhile are vocal about their emotional, intellectual, and political needs - as well as food, wood, and stone, they also want culture, freedom of expression, religion, and equality. And that's when Memoriapolis gets tough. The best way to meet the more complex demands of your people is to go to the Senate and pass decrees. But all those warring senators are determined to undermine and outfox one another, and only really care about what's best for their particular subsection of society.
One faction, for example, may advocate for businesses and financial growth while another wants to promote more religious worship. You want to pass a decree that says certain days of the week should be sacred, and dedicated to rest and prayer. But you can't get the support. The edict collapses. So, what do you do?
Depending on your success elsewhere - if you've managed to expand the city outwards, develop new technologies, or cultivate a thriving economy - you can earn more influence over the Senate. And by influence, I mean 'power to bribe people.' So, next time you want to pass that decree, you can approach the opposing factions and, with a few closed-door deals and private promises, tip the scales of the referendum. The religious delegation gets what it wants. Your people get what they want. But now you owe half the Senate a favor.
And this is the core of Memoriapolis. As much as a city builder, it's a strategy game where you have to dance between the fickle moods of your civilization's stakeholders. Eventually, you age out of the Ancient Rome-inspired period and graduate through to the Industrial Revolution - and the political to-and-fro gets increasingly complex and deep.
Throughout early access Memoriapolis has already earned a solid 'mostly positive' rating on Steam, and now it's finally made it to the full 1.0 launch. If you want to try it for yourself, it's available via a neat 10% discount, meaning you'll pay $22.49 / £18.89. Just head here.
Alternatively, try some of the other best 4X games, or maybe the best RTS games on PC today.
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